Cheryl Tiegs Frank Abagnale (2024)

FAQs

Did Frank Abagnale pass the bar in real life? ›

He didn't. He claimed to have passed the bar exam, but there is no record that he ever sat it at all, under either his name or an alias. There are many other claims Frank Abagnale has made that haven't stood up to scrutiny.

Abagnale became one of the most famous imposters of all time, having assumed no fewer than eight different identities as an airline pilot, a doctor, a US Bureau of Prisons agent, and, yes, even a lawyer. He escaped from police custody twice, and all before he was the ripe age of 21 years old.

Nobody heard anything because of the engines' roar." He moved with his wife, Kelly, and their three sons to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He and his family lived in the same house for the next 25 years. After their sons left home for college and careers elsewhere, Kelly suggested that she and Frank leave Tulsa.

When Carl tracks him down and arrives at their engagement party to arrest him, Frank admits the truth to Brenda, shows her all his stolen money and asks her to run away with him. Although shocked, she accepts his offer and agrees to meet him two days later at the airport.

With an IQ of 140, Frank Abagnale went on to write false checks and impersonate various respected professions. He notably acted as a pilot, was first imprisoned in France for theft, and was later deported back to the US, where he also impersonated a physician.

Of all the impostors on this list, Frank Abagnale may be the most well known — his years spent as a check forger, con man and faux airline pilot (don't worry, he never actually flew) were the subject of the 2002 film, Catch Me If You Can, based on Abagnale's autobiography by the same name.

Overcome by sadness and fear, Abagnale ran out of the courtroom and into the streets of Manhattan; he would never see his father again, and didn't see his mother until seven years later.

Today the majority of Mr. Abagnale's work is for the U. S. government. His company does not sell products or provide services, with the exception of his public speaking engagements, which are handled through Keppler Speakers (www.kepplerspeakers.com) in Washington, DC.

Abagnale never pretended to be a professor at Brigham Young or a physician in Georgia. He never posed as a lawyer in the Baton Rouge attorney general's office. He was never a consultant to the US Senate Judiciary Committee.

Paulette Abagnale

Frank Abagnale / Mother

Who was Carl who caught Frank Abagnale? ›

In 1969, FBI agent Carl Hanratty arrives in Marseille, France, to pick up a prisoner named Frank Abagnale Jr., who has fallen ill due to the prison's poor conditions. Six years ago, Frank lived in New Rochelle, New York, with his father, Frank Sr., and his French mother, Paula.

What is the biggest myth about your story perpetuated by the movie Catch Me If You Can? I wasn't very involved with the making of the film, but I thought Spielberg did a great job and only changed very minor things. In real life I had two brothers and a sister, he chose to portray me as an only child.

He falls in love with her and asks her to marry him, and even wins her parents over with his charm and devotion to their daughter. Carl shows up at the wedding to arrest Frank, forcing him to tell Brenda his real name and confess to being a fraud.

Frank, Jr., begins to telephone Carl Hanratty, the FBI agent who is chasing him, every year on Christmas Eve. These phone calls serve to highlight both men's loneliness. Carl is always working alone in the office so that men with families can be at home.

Cameo. Frank Abagnale Jr.: The French officer that arrests Frank on Christmas Eve, 1967. Max Spielberg: Steven Spielberg's son, sitting behind Leonardo DiCaprio during both parts of the airplane scene.

In Catch Me If You Can, Carl Hanratty kept asking Frank Abagnale how he cheated on the bar exam in Louisiana. It wasn't until the end of the film in which Frank Abagnale finally revealed that he actually studied for two weeks and passed the bar exam in Louisiana.

8. How did Frank 'authenticate' his PanAm checks? He used a toy airplane and put the pan-am airline logo on it and used a typewriter for the name and check amount.

Surrounded by eight women as stewardesses, he conceals himself from Carl and the other agents at the airport and escapes on a flight to Madrid. Later, in 1969, Carl tracks down Frank in his mother's hometown of Montrichard, France, and convinces him to surrender to the French police.